Disconnected (1984) User Reviews

Off the wall slasher movie that just about satisfies...

[LuisitoJoaquinGonzalez · 4/10 · 30 July 2005]

Once again we're in the realms of slasher movies that just about fit the guidelines of the category. As with Dead Kids and Murderlust, Disconnected attempts to branch away from the hackneyed likes of The Prowler and Edge of the Axe without straying too far from the stalk and slash rulebook.

After the credits have rolled we meet Alicia (Francis Raines) the protagonist of the feature. On her way home from work one day she finds an elderly man hanging around mysteriously beside her apartment. Sympathetically she allows the stranger to come inside and use her phone, but whilst she's making a cup of tea, he vanishes from her living room without trace. Later that night, Alicia tells her twin sister Barbara Ann (also Francis Raines) about the mysterious visitor, but she laughs it off telling her sibling that he probably just made a call and left suddenly. We soon learn that these twins don't exactly see eye to eye, mainly because Barbara Ann keeps sleeping with Alicia's boyfriends behind her back. Mike (Carl Koch) is the latest in the line of unfaithful partners to get the chop, not only for the aforementioned cheating, but presumably also because he has the worst case of 'bad mullet syndrome' that I have ever seen! Imagine a mid-eighties geek with a poodle on his head and you may be able to conjure up your own visual image.

Down in the dumps and on the rebound, Alicia meets up with a guy named Franklin (Mike Walker) and agrees to go out on a date with him. Franklin comes across as a polite fellow and he hides pretty well the fact that he loves nothing more than picking up promiscuous women, taking them back to his flat and then slaughtering them with the handy switch blade that he keeps in his bedside cabinet. Around the same time that Alicia meets this undercover maniac, she begins receiving bizarre and frankly quite credibly eerie persistent anonymous phone calls. As the bodies pile up around the city the Police get more and more baffled. Is Franklin the mysterious caller or is the petrified female just a little disconnected?

Disconnected is certainly an oddity of a feature. Almost as intriguing as it is bemusing, it will at times leave you staring at the screen in confusion. After the killer is revealed and dealt with half way through the runtime, the mystery is still un-resolved and to be honest the conclusion remains inconclusive to the viewer. Gorman Bechard's direction will have you as baffled as the illogical plot line. 88 of the 90-minute runtime looks to have been shot and edited by a retarded gibbon, but then every once in a while he manages to pull off a standout shock sequence that feels out of place amongst the rest of the point and shoot mediocrity. The director's obsession with wide, spacious and eminently tedious backdrops is as tedious as a HBO documentary and the chapters look to have been sewn together using a chainsaw and a tub of wallpaper paste.

The dramatics from the supporting actors are generally non-existent, but Francis Raines showed flashes of potential. OK, so she's certainly no Merryl Streep; in fact come to think of it, she's no Sharon Stone either; but for a breakout performance, I've certainly seen worse. One thing that is worth mentioning is the cheesy but still rather enjoyable soundtrack, which must have soaked up the majority of the minuscule budget. Look out for the hilarious nightclub scene, which in true slasher cheese on toast tradition shows us why the early eighties will always remain a bad disco memory to those that were alive and kicking at the time.

Bechard didn't attempt to hide the fact that he was making a shlock-a-lock feature. One character says, "I feel like I'm stuck in a low budget horror film, because some man is going round killing young women!" Another mentions something about nudity and violence and you can tell that the director knew exactly which audience he was aiming to satisfy. I guess in a way he succeeded, because for all its nonsensical and off the wall ramblings, Disconnected remains worth a watch. Yes it's confusing, and yes it makes very little common sense; but as an authentic take on the slasher formula, there are worse attempts floating about. Track it down if you can find it.

Huh?

[BA_Harrison · 5/10 · 16 October 2018]

Disconnected is the perfect word to describe the style of this very bizarre '80s obscurity, which is executed in such an off-kilter manner, with disparate scenes edited together in a seemingly random manner, that it actually proves quite mesmerising.

Frances Raines stars as pretty video store clerk Alicia, who begins dating a guy called Franklin (Mark Walker) unaware that he is the serial killer who has been butchering local women. Meanwhile, the poor girl is also having to contend with a series of bizarre, unsettling phone calls that are pushing her to the brink of insanity. While this sounds pretty straightforward, writer/producer/director/editor/tea-boy Gorman Bechard's unique creative approach makes for an unusual viewing experience to say the least.

From the get go, this is one weird movie, the first ten minutes or so making very little sense: Alicia helps an old man to her apartment, where he uses her phone and promptly disappears; Alicia and her friends dance to a really bad band; a man entertains a woman at a bar by doing the same magic trick twice; Alicia accuses her boyfriend of sleeping with her twin sister; Franklin visits the video shop despite not owning a player; a cop talks directly to camera about the murders: all of this is edited together in such a strange fashion that it beggars belief (throughout the film, Bechard chucks in random shots of everyday objects for good measure).

The film then trundles along in a relatively logical manner until midway, when Franklin is shot dead by the police, after which Alicia's scary phone calls become more and more frequent. No explanation is ever given for these occurrences, the film ending with Alicia smashing her phone (after the earpiece bleeds!?!), and with the reappearance of the old man from the beginning, whose relevance is also a complete mystery.

Go into this one expecting to not understand what is happening, and you might just find yourself entertained by its sheer craziness; if not, then there's always the lovely Miss Raines to hold your attention, the actress spending much of the film wandering around in her underwear and taking off her top to provide the obligatory nudity (she also plays Alicia's twin sister Barbara Ann, giving us twice the opportunity to appreciate her charms).

4.5 out of 10, rounded up to 5 for IMDb.

It Tried Something Different

[martinscrimm · 3/10 · 24 June 2020]

You have to give Disconnected a hand for daring to go against the grain and do something different. It's not your typical "teens in the woods/at a grad night/at prom/at camp/etc." being hacked up kind of horror movie, but that doesn't mean it works. In fact, it doesn't work.

Besides some flashes of potential here and there, Disconnected fails to make much of an impact due to a lack of suspense and underdeveloped characters. The entire thing is as baffling as a David Lynch movie but without the finesse. It's hinted that there might be something supernatural at play which gives it a slightly dreamlike feel, but I can't tell if that was intentional or because the filmmakers weren't sure what they were doing. However, it's probably the most interesting aspect of the film.

Okay regional horror film

[lor_ · 2 March 2023]

My review was written in January 1986 after watching the movie on Active video cassette.

"Disconnected" is a low-budget horror film made by locals in Waterbury, Connecticut, which tries to surmount the cliches of the genre, but emerges as a routine picture. One-man filmmaker Gorman Bechard shows some style, especially in flashy insert shots, but needs to come up with more original material.

Frances Raines toplines as Alicia Michaels, a young woman who works as a sales clerk at Valley Video, a home video store. She's had a fight with her deejay boyfriend Mike (Carl Koch), accusing him of having slept with her twin sister Barbara Ann (also played by Raines), and now a young guy Franklin (Mark Walker) keeps hanging around Valley Video trying to get a date with Alicia.

Meanwhile, the cops are investigating a series of slasher murders, with evidence (shown to the viewer but not known to the cops) implicating Franklin. Alicia is plagued by annoying phone calls that feature harsh noises. She also becomes involved romantically with Franklin.

Although Bechard plants some interesting clues in the opening reel, plotline goes haywire when Franklin is seduced by twin Barbara Ann, murders her and then, in a poorly designed scene (it's largely omitted, referred to verbally later) is killed by the cops. The killings continue after Franklin's death with an open-ended finale ponting at the real killer.

Bechard's exposition scenes, particularly with the lackadaisical cops, continually mock the rigid format of slasher films, but ultimately his picture lapses into these cliches, such as the overuse of he phone call gimmick. Leading lady Raines, who has been featured in many B-films of late, is impressive in her dual role, combining vulnerability with the ambiguity of possible madness necessary in a "Repulsion"-type heroine.

The movie you watch is not making sense. If you want to see anything good, please press stop-button and choose again.

[Coventry · 3/10 · 25 October 2023]

See, that's what happens when you already watched as good as every semi-worthwhile horror movie of the 80s decade! You are stuck with the leftovers. The obscure movies with vaguely intriguing premises and perhaps 2 or 3 good moments of fright, but overall dull, confusion, and amateurishly made cheap trash! Like "Disconnected".

Let's at least start with the few positive notes. Lead actress Frances Sherman is gorgeous looking, frequently strips off her clothes, and - moreover - stars in a clichéd double role of the goody-goody Alicia and her own lewd twin sister Barbara Ann. Her main character Alicia works in a textbook early 80s video-store, and you just know she has good taste, because in her apartment there's a poster of Alfred Hitchcock's pitch-black comedy "The Trouble with Harry". And truth to be told, there was one truly genius and perplexing moment as well! When she's working at the video store, Alicia receives regular visits from a customer - Franklin - who doesn't have a VCR-player but only comes to see her and ask her out. After refusing a few times, Alicia eventually does want to meet up with Franklin and calls him up at home. While he's answering the phone and reacting genuinely happy that Alicia finally gives him a change, the camera zooms out and we suddenly see there's the bloodied corpse of a girl lying next to him on the bed. This clumsy but amiable kid has been a serial killer all along?

That was a great moment, honestly, but it's quickly forgotten again due to the script of "Disconnected" being so bad. There are so many things happening that don't make the slightest bit of sense! What's up with the old man in Alicia's apartment? Why are is there a police officer in Hawaiian shirt pretending he's giving an interview for a true-crime documentary? Why do the obscene phone calls sound like a baby-alien bursting out of the chest of John Hurt's chest?

All the weirdness and senselessness I can easily tolerate, but what I personally found truly insufferable were writer/director Gorman Bechard's lame tricks to stretch the running time. The movie is unnecessarily made longer through awful editing and pointless padding. During the love-making sequences, for instance, Bechard joyfully shows a long and tedious montage of everyday interior design objects. There's also a sequence that freezes on an ugly painting for such an unimaginably long time that I thought my DVD-player or the disc itself was broken.

Sleep inducing

[Leofwine_draca · 2/10 · 17 September 2018]

DISCONNECTED is a trashy, zero budget cult horror oddity of 1984, made on an indie budget which means that the locations are limited to a street or two and mostly bedroom shots. It was recently put out by Vinegar Syndrome but like a lot of the obscurities they've unearthed, you wonder why they made the effort. This is an oddball, confusing flick about a random series of murders in which women are generally butchered in their beds by a psycho. There's a little bloodshed and nudity but nothing too graphic considering the era. Later, the film's heroine finds herself menaced by sinister telephone calls and it turns out there's a twist in store. Sadly, none of this makes much sense at all and it certainly isn't entertaining; sleep inducing, more like.

psycho serial killer and weird phone calls; poor, but not terrible, low budget horror

[FieCrier · 4/10 · 18 June 2005]

Not very good, but somewhat watchable. Someone is killing young women in a small town; we don't see the killings or bodies until the killer is identified. Meanwhile, an odd but polite young man tries to date Alicia, a young woman who is working at a video store. She has a slutty identical twin sister. Alicia is getting strange phone calls: nobody there, or horrible sounds, or overhearing other people's phone calls. The calls may or may not be related to the killer.

The movie gets a little odd after the killer is dealt with by the police. A restless night Alicia has is depicted through a series of black & white photographs. An old man in a black hat and black coat who was seen at the beginning of the movie shows up again at the end. I'm not sure if he is significant or not.

As in Gorman Bechard's other movies, Carmine Capobianco talks to the camera. Here, he's a cop talking to someone, a journalist? Oddly, he's shot against a white wall, and wears the same shirt in scenes supposed to be taking place on different days.

Lots of pop/rock songs on the soundtrack. Sometimes scenes play without dialogue or environmental sound, serving as little more than music video montage scenes. There's some good music by XTC and Hunters & Gatherers.

If this was Bechard's first film as a director, as it seems to be, it's not bad considering that.

Filmed on Weekend and It Shows

[arfdawg-1 · 1/10 · 9 May 2023]

This movie was supposedly filmed in Connecticut on the weekends.

If that's true, it sure does show. It's a disjointed mess.

Seems like a fair amount of it is a showcase for some really bad local band that they film doing really bad original songs.

The script is ludicrous and the acting is attrocious.

And BTW, the directing leaves a lot to desire too. As does the spacy musical track.

It's truly difficult to know what's going on because the entire movie is one big disjointed mess.

Also no one bothered to clean up the soundtrack so sometimes it's loud, sometimes low and always hollow and echoing.

Disconnect The Phone And The Mobile When Watching This Picture.

[P3n-E-W1s3 · 7/10 · 20 August 2022]

Greetings And Salutations, and welcome to my review of Disconnected; here's the breakdown of my ratings:

Story: 1.50 Direction: 1.50 Pace: 1.25 Acting: 1.25 Enjoyment: 1.50

TOTAL: 7.00 out of 10.00

This little-known picture came as a pleasant, if slightly disturbing, surprise. It possesses some intriguing concepts and is one of the better modern telephone horror films.

The screenplay, written by Director Gorman Bechard and Virginia Gilroy - based on her short story - tells the tale of Alicia and Franklin's doomed romance and throws in a generous spattering of mystery, mayhem, and murder. One day when Alicia leaves for work at the video store, she spots an elderly gentleman who appears distressed. Being a kindly person, she offers him a cup of tea. However, no sooner has the tea been brewed and she's walked back into the room does Alicia find him gone. Quickly she moves to her front door and looks out but can't see the gent anywhere. He was slow-moving and unsteady; there was no way he could have walked out, descended her stairs, and ambled down the street before Alicia scouted the neighbourhood for him. The incident troubles her, but she soon forgets him when the phone calls start coming. Franklin is a cinephile. One day he pops into Alicia's store and shyly asks her out. She happily accepts his advances as she's unsure of Mark, her ex, and her twin sister Barbara. Her sister has issues, and one's to seduce her sister's men. Alicia believes Mark has already fallen under her temptations. And this theory is borne out when she receives a call from Barbara. However, it appears to be a crossed line as Bab's not conversing with her but with Mark, and she's saying that her sis is clueless about them. But this isn't the only curious call she's received, and it won't be the last. Because, now, when the phone rings and she picks up, an undulating shriek screech from the earpiece before the strange and obscure chatter starts. Is she suffering a mental breakdown? Are these aural delusions? While out in the streets of her town, a stalker is killing and mutilating women. The police are having little luck in apprehending the slasher. Will they find him out in time, or will Alicia and Bab's end up on the wrong end of his blade? A lot is going on in Disconnected, but it never feels overly stuffed or heavy. Bechard and Gilroy magnificently weave together all the strands into one strong rope of a tale. They keep the narrative flowing smoothly and fill it with appealing and credible characters. I particularly like the two detectives; they have a je ne sais quoi about them.

Another positive is Bechard's direction. This guy attempts to make every scene interesting at every opportunity. He uses light and shade, varying camera angles, different styles of panning, quick cuts, and composition to entertain the audience. I especially liked the phone call segment when Alicia rings Franklin to accept his dinner offer. We see her in the video store dialling his number. We then have a semi-close-up of Franklin appearing to wake up in his bed and answer the phone. After they hang up, we stay in Franklin's bedroom, but this time we're standing looking down at the foot of the bed. We slowly pan up the bed to reveal the bloody chaos. It's a simple shot, but it works well. There's also a superb rolling pan in the nightclub to witness the patrons sitting at the bar. It doesn't bring anything to the story, just interest in a filler scene, but it's good.

As for the performances, these are all above par. However, I would've liked more tension and darkness from Mark Walker (Franklin), especially in the murder scenes. He's a tad soft for my liking. But apart from that, everyone does well and are on an even keel.

I would gladly recommend this macabre piece of cinematography to every Horror and Dark Thriller fan. It's original and mysteriously entertaining, and a wonderful way to spend a dark autumnal night. But beware, I have found this story has a way of crawling into your cerebrum and nestling there.

Don't listen to the voices on the phone. Focus on my voice; now, please read over my IMDb lists - Absolute Horror and Killer Thriller Chillers, to see where I ranked Disconnected before I have my fun with you.

Take Care & Stay Well.

It Had Some Potential

[forecastfortoday · 5/10 · 8 May 2010]

Disconnected is quite a strange movie. It is half slasher film, a quarter crime thriller, and a quarter art film. It is, surprisingly, quite unpredictable, and even a little bit shocking at times. Unfortunately, the movie is brought down drastically by a low budget, making the film sleazy and unrealistic. The film itself kind of brings this feeling of "What the hell just happened?" at the end of each scene, not because of twists in the plot, but because the film is confusing.

After coming home from work one day, Alicia (the beautiful, yet sadly unknown Frances Raines) finds an old man at her apartment, wanting to use the telephone. She lets him use her phone while she leaves the room to make some tea. When she comes back, the man is gone. She begins to receive obscene phone calls, which consist of a loud, electronic voice screaming at her. Meanwhile, Alicia begins dating a man named Franklin (Mark Walter) after her twin sister, Barbara Ann (Also played by Frances Raines), steals her boyfriend, Mike (Carl Koch). Little does Alicia know that Franklin is a serial killer who kills women after he sleeps with them...

Made in 1983 (A golden age for slasher films), Disconnected is probably one of the rarest and most original slasher made for it's time. However, like mentioned before, the budget is so small that the film is basically a porn film without all the sex (Even though there is a ton of T&A in the film). Despite the low budget, the acting is actually not that bad for such a bad movie. Frances Raines is pretty good in her role as a damsel in distress, especially towards the end of the movie, which leads to her nearly having a breakdown from the phone calls. One of the things I didn't entirely like about the movie is why there are scenes that consist of the director of the film (Gorman Bechard) and a policeman who is trying to solve the case (Ben Page). There really isn't much explanation as to what these scenes are completely about. The policeman usually talks more about himself than the actual case, and ends up just disappearing from the film entirely towards the end.

Overall, the idea the writers had wasn't a bad idea at all, the plot isn't bad at all. The actual movie, however, was bad. The budget, the confusing scenes, the music, and the strange artsy scenes made the film bad.

A Film For Film People...

[Falconeer · 8/10 · 24 February 2021]

Four stars...for THIS film; all the proof you need to realize the rating system here just can't be taken seriously. "Disconnected" is, for lack of a better description, a movie for people who are truly into film. It's not a movie to simply watch for entertainment, or as a distraction, but rather something to be studied for it's technique, camera angles, experimental ideas that come together to create a totally unique experience. New wave music and 80's fashions are on display, as this intriguing story that centers around a group of people that love movies and music...and sex and murder, unfolds like some nostalgic dream. The fact that the cast, both male and female, is gorgeous, doesn't hurt the production at all. Alicia works at a local video store where she rents big box movies to the locals. The store is decorated with movie posters. When she goes home to a place that is also covered with movies posters, you realize that Alicia is a big movie fan. She has an identical twin sister, Barbara Ann, who is as crazy about her sisters boyfriends as Alicia is about classic movies. One of the men sis decides to steal, is a violent, psychotic serial killer.. But things aren't as they seem, and Alicia has unknowingly invited an evil force into her home, by way of a mysterious old man, who seems homeless, and in need of a phone to call for help. That old man disappears when Alicia turns her back. She assumes he has left her house...but he hasn't. This evil presence manifests itself through the telephone, when Alicia starts being terrorized by a horrible, evil, ear splitting sound on the other end of her phone line. The connection between the serial killer and this evil force isn't explained, but the whole thing is just such a chilling and fascinating mix of horror and oblique mystery. "Disconnected" is sort of a punk rock movie, with it's music and clothing, and those night club scenes. The characters are those hip people who always seem to know the cutting edge bands and the underground music venues. Shot on a tiny budget, the gray, late Autumn scenery creates an atmospheric and unsettling world. Strangely the recent horror film "It Follows" has a very similar aesthetic to this film, and I wonder if the director of that movie is a fan of this obscure gem. The bluray restoration for "Disconnected" is a welcome addition to any fan of cult and avant garde horror, and it already goes for a hefty price on auction sites. And this film is exactly that; a film for movie collectors and serious film buffs. Casual viewers will most likely not comprehend the greatness that is this film..

Wonderfully weird no budget horror obscurity

[Bloodwank · 7/10 · 12 October 2011]

I enjoy weird low budget horror from the early 80's more than most. Disconnected is weirder and lower budgeted than most early 80's horror. We were meant to be together...Here we have the lovely Alicia for a heroine, cracking up as her identical twin Barbara-Anne screws around with her boyfriends. Tormented by hallucinations and noisy psyche freak-out phone calls (which succeed in being genuinely creepy) she happily sets to it with a geeky new beau. But what does all this have to do with a crazed killer icing his way through the ladies of the area...? While other no-budget horror of the era was content with aping popular slashers of the time, Disconnected has more on its mind. References to older films, notably Shadow of a Doubt (which a character spoils) as well as various posters, and the heroines video rental job (where at one stage she comes across an obnoxious porno patron) give the impression of the film riffing on its own milieu even as it inhabits it, its an approach that can come off awfully obnoxious but here it works because everything is so damned strange that its tough to unpick any meaning. The joy is that the construction is as strange as the plotting, so the strangeness becomes inescapable, it curls out of just about every frame in a captivating web of strange and if you can succumb, well its a good experience. There are strange things that seem a result of ineptitude, like the main character referencing the lateness of the hour while sun clearly shines in her window, or one bit where the brightness through her window makes a scene near impossible to make out. Then there are strange things that seem deliberate and beautiful, like editing that shuns plot rhythm so the audience can never settle into a scene in case it cuts away without discernible point (a pivotal moment of the film takes place off screen in this way), but really likes cutting to weird background objects in scenes where the action is of interest. Occasionally the wacky technique comes up unsettling trumps (a couple of interesting kills) but mostly it's bewildering, and I sure like bewilderment. There are bar scenes that skip dialogue and environmental sound so we can see mouths move but hear only disco pop, there's even a cop talking straight to camera against a white backdrop for some kind of documentary touch. There's more of course, but I could carry on a long way on it and I haven't got all day. It is worth mentioning that the ending explains virtually nothing and summons suspicions of a lost script (or final scenes dreamt up on the fly), which may be a problem for some. Acting-wise this is about what you'd expect. Frances Raines is pretty solid as Alicia/Barbara-Anne, effectively frayed as the former and sexy and combative as the latter. Helps that she's a lovely looking lady as well (and shows her boobs). Mark Walker is convincingly awkward and strange as new boyfriend Franklin, and to be honest I can barely remember anybody else worth mentioning. Most people are going to hate this one, but I had a grand old time, its mixture of unabashed strangeness and cold sincerity with trash art musing aesthetics place it as one of the most unusual of its era, giving perhaps even Horror House on Highway 5 a run for its acid burn out money. I give it a 7/10, but suspect this is more like a 4 for the majority.

Decent, cheap junk

[blurnieghey · 5/10 · 4 July 2022]

This is a cheaply made piece of horror nostalgia that I enjoyed watching despite its numerous flaws. Honestly, I'm not really sure what they were going for on this one. First it starts out as a catch-the-psycho-killer shtick that is straight-forward enough for what it is (not that great), but it turns out it's more some sort of super-natural phone-haunting thing that isn't really explained worth a damn. One could try to argue it was all in her head, but why the old man in the final shot? Not really scary at all and the thing that grabbed me is that the chick drinks warm gin straight. Who does that? Yuck.

The Title Sums Up My Feelings

[Michael_Elliott · 8 December 2017]

Disconnected (2017)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Women are being brutally murdered by a psychopath. At the same time, video store worker Alicia (Frances Raines) begins dating a new guy but she's constantly worried that her slut sister Barbara Ann (also played by Raines) might be trying to do something wrong.

Gorman Bechard made DISCONNECTED before doing PSYCHOS IN LOVE and I must say that the title of this movie perfectly summed up my feelings on it. I really did feel disconnected throughout the entire film and I had a really hard time trying to connect with anything going on. To say the film struggled to hold my attention would be an understatement.

This film has quite a bit going on with it as you've got the entire story dealing with the sisters. You've also got the story dealing with the good sister and her new relationship. You've also got a detective (Carmine Capobianco) talking directly to the camera as he tries to solve the killings. All of this is going on in a film that runs 84-minutes and to say it's very fair to say that the overall movie is very uneven and it seems like they weren't quite sure how to handle everything.

For the most part the performances are good enough for this type of film. There's some sleaze elements with some nudity and some mildly gory scenes but consider this is a slasher film, neither are really up there among the genre's more memorable moments. With that said, fans of the director might want to check this out but others can certainly stay clear of it. I will add that it was fun seeing a video store like they used to be.

Sorry, wrong movie

[Phroggy · 1/10 · 31 August 1999]

I'd like somebody to explain exactly how this movie was made. It starts as a (bad) psychokiller where basically nothing makes sense : it's just one scene after another without reason nor logic. Then we witness the killer's demise (do we ? I'm not even sure) and then, the heroine suddenly gets persecuted by her phone in a flood of weird, "arty" shots. The movie ends because they ran out of time, or somebody yelled "cut !", or everybody fell asleep, I still don't know?. In a way, it is a movie to be experienced : your latest dream had more logic in it than this attempt. What were they on ? Who made this ? Who released this ? What will become of the world ? What time is it ? What are you reading ?

Ed Wood was a genius!!!

[petervenkman57 · 2/10 · 9 August 2009]

OK, I don't normally like to trash filmmakers and this director seems to want to make something way beyond his abilities. But seriously anyone who gave this film high marks needs to have their Thorazine doses lowered. This director makes Ed Wood look like a genius. I had never heard of this film (and for good reason). The plot is non-existent. The editing appears to have been done by throwing all the film into a Veggiematic and then randomly splicing it together. There are numerous "wall reaction" shots (seriously) that go on for literally 30 seconds. The sound is terrible. The photography aspires to good but fails miserably. There is one whole sequence that is shot directly into the sun where you can't make out at all what's going on. In a climatic scene (as though it would really exist in this movie) the entire action happens off-screen. This is a train wreck of movie. It just doesn't get worse than this.

I can only imagine the director apparently went to the the Xavier Cogat School of film and failed. The only redeeming thing in this is Frances Raines who is great to look at. I am stunned by the IMDb info that this filmmaker went on to make more films. I have to think he must be a rich kid whose parents indulged his every whim.

A True Headscratcher

[glenmatisse · 5/10 · 18 July 2020]

It's interesting that this movie begins with a title card that reads "Generic Films", because Disconnected, whether you love it or hate it, is anything but generic. From what I think I understand, it's about a young woman who works at a video store who has a twin sister. One day, she invites an old man in to use her phone and he disappears and then she starts semi-dating a serial killer and getting weird phone calls and then I can't decipher anything else that happens in this movie.

It feels like it was made up as they went along, but it's so strange that you have to keep watching, hoping you'll get some answers at some point. By the end, I was more frustrated than satisfied.

Not That Bad

[gwnightscream · 4/10 · 8 August 2019]

This 1984 horror film tells about a young woman, Alicia (Frances Raines) who breaks up with her boyfriend and starts dating a seemingly, nice guy who turns out to be a serial killer targeting women. This isn't that bad, except for a couple amateur, camera shots and there's a raw 70's student or porn film vibe at times. Raines is pretty good and the film sort of resembles "Maniac." If you're into psychological horror or slasher flicks, give this a try.

Sarcasm is alive in Ratings

[lysoc · 3/10 · 25 November 2023]

Low budget, Indeed. Is it so bad it's good? If you like MST the answer is yes watch this and imagine Mike (or Joel) and the bots. Starting off the bat with a direct stare into the camera. The wrong kind. Music is bumpin, here's the first line of the song from the dance club..."I have a picture of you in my memory" From this point I knew I had to finish the movie. Quiet dialogue under loud soundtrack, all the stereotypical stuff you'd expect from college (Highschool?) no budget movie. On that note, Birdemic you have competition! Smoke a bowl and lower your expectations for this one...Here is a line from the female lead to stalker who showed up at video rental place. "What kinda machinery you workin with?" "Beta or VHS?" So, it's not a knock off of a bad 80s movie, it is one. Still a bad movie so no good rating but Unintentional Campiness makes it worth watching! Peace out homies.

I can dig it

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 5 October 2021]

I'd never seen this until the Neon Brainiacs guys picked it one of our movies on the Drive-In Asylum Double Feature. Man - this is something.

Directed by Gorman Bechard, this film centers around video store employee Alicia - if you love seeing classic VHS cases, this is assuredly a movie you should watch - who allows an old man into her home to use the phone and abruptly disappear. She tries to relate this story to her boyfriend Mike and her gorgeous twin sister Barbara Ann, who is definitely stealing Mike away from her. She's also being pursued by a strange man named Franklin who comes to her store despite not having a VCR. And when she gets home from the bar that night, she starts a series of prank calls that either have strange voices at the end or have Mike and her sister discussing murdering her and the affair they are having behind her back.

At the same time, Detective Tremaglio is investigating a series of crimes and this section of the movie takes the form of what we'd call found footage these days, as we see the actual interrogations.

If you've just read those two paragraphs and thought, "Disconnected seems to make no sense," trust me, it lives up to its name.

Alicia and Franklin begin a romance - at the same time that he's murdering women and using their dead bodies for sexual pleasure - and then just when it seems like things are about to get resolved, the calls begin all over again, even after she destroys the phone, which starts bleeding. Then the old man leaves her apartment.

Shot in Waterbury, Connecticut and featuring a soundtrack with XTC, The Excerpts (the band Jon Brion started in), Haysi Fantayzee and Hunters & Collectors, there really isn't a slasher - there isn't a movie - like this. Of course, Vinegar Syndrome put it out. They made some kind of deal with several dark demons to have the inside track on the rights to forgotten VHS rental movies or something. They're going to all lose their souls, but we get some great movies out of their dark deal.

bonkers and beautiful..

[jcx238 · 8/10 · 14 February 2021]

Pretty much loved this through and through - the blaring pop-punk soundtrack - Francis Raines' believable acting/characterization - the weird off-kilter blend of the banal and truly bizarre - the use of real apartments/clubs/videostore/Waterbury streets in which it all takes place - guaranteeing nothing feels like a "cheap set" despite (and/or because of it) being a low-budget production.. there's great choices being made all over the place here including a plethora of odd-ball, random little details - like shrimp newberg for dinner (!?!) - realizing she lives right across the street from the cemetery - or the ridiculous Groucho Marx statue in her apartment (that takes on a truly creepy demeanor at one point) - make it much richer a watch than expected and not just a by-the-books/let's-make-a-buck exploitationer.. and when it shifts from being (mostly) "I know where this is going" into something darker, more sinister and more somewhat incomprehensible - it manages to become truly frightening and nightmarish.. and that cacophonous noise coming out of her phone is pretty darn unsettling.. all of the reviews I read (positive or negative) pointed out a particular shot as a complaint towards being amateurish - a shot that actually had me almost leaping outta my seat thinking how bold and beautiful a choice it was - and it doesn't feel out of place in a movie that is doing a lot of things its own way.. Director Bechard's Psychos In Love is probably better known - possibly better regarded - than Disconnected - but I found this one to be more enthralling, more particular, more interesting - and less straining to be funny or quirky.. and in the words of the Disconnected nice-guy-but-a-serial-killer, Franklin's trade-mark sign-off that I got a kick out of once I realized he was going to keep saying it: "ok - see ya - bye"..

Bizarre low budget horror obscenity

[zombieoutbreak-74199 · 6/10 · 10 July 2021]

I thought this movie would be about a psychotic killer that stalks a women through phone calls. I didn't expect the killer to pursue the woman and stalk her at the same time! This is a very strange but oddly entertaining horror film. It doesn't always make sense but it does enough to keep you interested. I give it a 6/10 for being a weird low budget flick!

70s feel

[nick121235 · 8/10 · 17 October 2018]

Both the (extremely) low budget production values and the bad acting helped to create a film that was reminiscent of giallo, which brought a sense of nostalgia to the table for me- however, Disconnected has characters that are the 'every day' american type, and this, alongside the graininess of the cheap film stock, makes the film seem much more like a 70's film than an 80's one. The more real violence contributes to the 70s feel- other than the acting, there is no cheese to be found here. The first 3/4 of this film were absolutely fantastic. A real sense of tension and a blend of realistic, sleazy subplot alongside a more surreal main plot made Disconnected an absolutely unique and interesting piece. After the subplot culminates however, the film falls off, and begins to wear out its welcome. Overall this film is actually really cool as long as you can stand the super low budget feel.

Just a girl and her landline

[drownsoda90 · 8/10 · 4 October 2020]

Alicia is an introverted video store clerk in early-1980s Waterbury, Connecticut, suffering from insecurities spurred by her glamorous twin sister, Barbara Ann, whom Alicia believes is stealing her boyfriend, Mike. Meanwhile, a series of murders is occurring in town. Alicia's troubles grow worse when she breaks up with Mike and begins dating Franklin, a shy local who has pursued her, after which she begins receiving horrifying phone calls emitting unearthly noises. Is Alicia going mad? Is it Mike--or Franklin? Is her phone evil?

The first feature of Gorman Bechard, this low-budget but arty debut is a strange cross between Brian De Palma's "Sisters" and Roman Polanski's "Repulsion," shot through with a supernatural weirdness that renders the whole thing almost unforgettable. If you are looking for a narrative that makes sense and can be logically followed, this is not the film for you--though fairly straightforward, "Disconnected" has just enough weirdness about it that will leave viewers scratching their heads, with the most levelheaded inevitably frustrated.

Rather, this is the kind of film for audiences who want to be whisked away by atmosphere, into a world of wood-paneling, suburban video stores circa 1983, and autumnal leafy New England streets populated by dive bars. Despite its narrative shortcomings, "Disconnected" is a profoundly atmospheric film with a number of visual touches that are surprisingly elegant; it's also punctuated by a haunting sound design, with frequent attention to ambient noises like ticking clocks (ala "Repulsion") and unearthly, almost alien-like screeching that the protagonist is tormented by with each phone call. Bloodied hands grasp at picture frames, the camera pans to a crucifix hanging above a bed inhabited by a corpse, and time passes in the form of black-and-white still frames like a 1910s hand-cranked nickelodeon. Some of these odd touches feel purposeful, others merely incidental (such as several bizarre scenes in which a detective discusses his investigation into the string of murders, facing the camera interview-style in a Hawaiian shirt), but, all together, they weave a web of utter strangeness that will either draw you in or completely deter you.

The acting here is generally lackluster, though the lanky, doe-eyed Frances Raines makes for a formidable lead in the dual roles of the twin sisters. Her acting is at times shaky but overall decent, and she spends much of the film chain-smoking and lounging around her home, illustrating a bleak existence. What is perhaps most surprising about the film is that it really throws a curveball in the last scene, which ties together the film's bizarrely brief, episodic opening sequence, and leaves the audience with a quite different perspective on everything they've just watched. The final scene, which ends in a freeze frame, is unexpectedly haunting, and implies that the most logical explanation is not at all the case. All in all, this cheapjack horror effort weaves a spell. 8/10.